

















Copyright N°- 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 


























































































































































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$ 


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ILLUSTRATED AND DESCRIPTIVE 


ACCOUNT OF THE 


jttam Dams ani ®tfers 



OF THE 


9Ui)otian 3&mrbotr 


BROWN STATION, N. Y. 


TO 


COPYRIGHTED 

Photos by W. W. Wright 


PUBLISHED BY 

E. G. NIMSGERN 

BROWN STATION. N. Y. 


prirr 50 Cents 




7 ^" 
































( 







Askukau nxxb. ®tk^s 

i C7 C7 


OR THE past two generations New York City has used Croton 
River for its supply of water, Brooklyn being supplied prin¬ 
cipally by the Ridgewood system of wells. The tremendous 
growth of the city, with the increased demand for pure water, caused 
the officials to take up the matter of providing an additional supply 
and to eventually give New York City the best and greatest water- 
supply ever known. 

The matter was finally brought before the Legislature at Albany 
and chapter 724 of the Laws of 1905 and as follows became a law: 

Lazes of 1905. Chapter 724. 

AN ACT to provide for an additional supply of pure and 
wholesome water for the City of New York; and 
for the acquisition of lands or interests therein, 
and for the construction of the necessary reser¬ 
voirs, dams, aqueducts, filters and other appurte¬ 
nances for that purpose; and for the appointment 
of a commission with the powers and duties neces¬ 
sary and proper to attain these objects. 

Accepted by the city. Became a law June 3, 1905, with 
the approval of the Governor. Passed by a two- 
thirds vote. 

SECTION 1 ;The Board of Water Supply of the City of New 
York. The Mayor of the City of New York shall 
appoint three persons, who shall be commissioners 
for the purpose hereinafter specified. The persons 
so to be appointed shall be public officers and shall 
constitute a board or commission to be called the 
Board of Water Supply of the City of New York. 

Etc. 


On June 9, 1905, Hon. George B. McClellan, Mayor, acting under 
Section 1, Chapter 724 of the Laws of 1905, appointed J. Edward 
Simmons, Charles N. Chadwick and Charles A. Shaw commissioners 



to constitute the Board of Water Supply of the City of New York, 
from lists submitted by the Chamber of Commerce, the Board of Fire 
Underwriters and Manufacturers’ Association of New York. 

Immediately upon appointment, the board organized with the ap¬ 
pointment of J. Edward Simmons* as President, and Charles N. Chad- 

* Resigned and succeeded by John A. Bensel. 



( 5 ) 























wick as Secretary. Following instructions that they secure the best 
engineering talent, the Board appointed J. Waldo Smith chief engineer 
and John R. Freeman consulting engineer to the Board, and William 
H. Burr and Frederick P. Stearns consulting engineers on the advisory- 
board of the chief engineer. 

On August 9, 1905, the Board passed a resolution directing a general 
plan for securing an additional supply of water from the Catskill 
Mountain district and instructed the chief engineer to submit plans 
and profiles. 


On October 9, 1905, or four months after their appointment, and 
pursuant to Chapter 724 the Board submitted its report, together 
with the report of the chief engineer, to the Board of Estimate and 
Apportionment, accompanied by a large map and profiles setting forth 
the complete scheme for an additional supply from the Catskill Moun¬ 
tains. 

On October 27, 1905, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment 
passed a resolution approving and adopting the report, map and pro¬ 
files and directing the map to be signed and filed in accordance with 
the law. 


^-34—*- Top of Dam 610 feet 

Level of Water In Reservoir ^.^^rs^dS^flbove Sea Level. 

when fullEl590^ 


Sodded S/ope 



Masonry Core Wall 

)!* \\i~%jo//u nuor\ zimtr, -r- 1 _ • 1 ^ 

7»-' \ Typical Dike Section 


16 ) 
















A Typical Walking Boss (Mounted) at Ashokan 


(7) 












JVsIutkmt 


S HE ASHOKAN RESERVOIR, the principal reservoir in the 
Catskill scheme, is situated in the foothills of the Catskill 
Mountains, about 14 miles west of the Hudson River at 
Kingston, N. Y., in the County of Ulster and in the valley of Esopus 
Creek. 


The reservoir is about 12^2 miles long and varies from one to two 
miles in width. When full, it will have a water area of 12.8 square 
miles and a shore line of 40 miles. The total area to drain into the 
reservoir is approximately 250 square miles and when full has a ca¬ 
pacity of 128 billion gallons of pure fresh mountain water. The water 
will have a maximum depth of 190 feet and an average depth of 50 feet 
with high water level at elevation 590 feet above sea level. 

The reservoir will be divided into an east and a west basin by the 
Dividing Weir and Dike. The west basin will be formed by the buil¬ 
ding of the Olive Bridge Dam with the north and south wing across 
the gorge of the Esopus Creek and will have a length of about one 
mile; the west dike across the valley of the Hog Vly Kill will also 
form a part of this basin. The east basin will be formed by the build¬ 
ing of the Beaver Kill Dikes across the valley of the Beaver Kill and 
the east dike waste weir near the Stone Church Spillway, which will 
carry the overflow of the reservoir back into the old channel of the 
Esopus. At the intersection of the west and middle dikes, at a point 
opposite the present station of the Ulster & Delaware R. R. at Brown 
Station, the aqueduct has its origin and from here the water is carried 
by the Catskill Aqueduct a distance of nearly 100 miles to New York. 
Leading off towards the hill from the gate-chamber at the head of the 
aqueduct is the dividing weir and dike, which divides the basins ; a chan¬ 
nel called the east and west channel in each basin meet here and water 
can be drawn from either basin, or both. A discharge channel near 
here will take the overflow of the west into the east basin. Just below 
the head works of the aqueduct and where the village of Brown 
Station now stands will be installed the large areating basins to re¬ 
move tastes and odors, if there be any, from the water. 

To prepare this reservoir for the impounding of the water will ne¬ 




cessitate the removal of seven villages, besides countless farm houses 
and scattering dwellings. 

The dead will not even be permitted to rest and there will be several 
thousand bodies removed from the large number of small cemeteries 
within the area of the reservoir. In addition to the removal of all 
buildings etc., all trees and vegetable matter of every description will 
be removed and the roots burned or hauled away; when man has 
finished this work the bed of the Ashokan Reservoir will be more 
barren of vegetation than the arid desert of Sahara. Many a tear 
will be shed and many a heart will ache when the life-long residents 
pack their belongings and load them on wagons, to be hauled from the 
old homes. Some of these residents have never known another home 
and must in their old days start to build in other parts and among 
strangers. Then comes the man with the firebrand and the old home 
is reduced to ashes and nothing more remains except the old cellar- 
walls and the memories of time gone by. 

It will also be necessary to take up and remove about 13 miles of the 
road-bed and track of the L T lster & Delaware R. R. and to replace 
miles of highways and county roads, which will mean the building of 
several bridges, besides the bridge which will traverse the dividing 
weir and the highway across the top of the dams and dikes. 

In the summer of 1907 the Board of Water Supply advertised for 
bids for the building of the dams and dikes; sealed bids were received 
at their office on August 6, 1907, and then publicly opened and read. 
Each bid was accompanied by a certified check for $250,000.00, that 
in case the contract was awarded, the contractor would carry out and 
fullfil his agreement for the proper execution of the contract and furn¬ 
ish the necessary bonds of $1,000,000 for the faithful performance of 
the work. The Board reserved the right to reject any and all bids or 
to select the bid or proposal, the acceptance of which would, in its 
judgment, best secure the efficient performance of the work. 

The Board then took all of the bids under advisement and investi¬ 
gated the various bidders as to their past records and capability of 


(9) 


doing the work, as time in which various portions of the whole of the 
contract are to be carried out and the work completed, was the essence 
of the agreement. 


After about 20 days investigation etc., the hoard awarded the con¬ 
tract to Mac Arthur Brothers Company and Winston & Company, of 
New York and Richmond, Va., for $12,669,000.00. 

The approximate estimate of the amount of work to be done and 
which was used as a basis for computing bids is as follows: 


Earth excavation 
Rock excavation 
Earth & rock embai 
Portland cement 
Concrete masonry 
Paving and riprap 
Metal work 
Clearing 

Vitrified drain tile 
^Crushed stone 
Timber & lumber 
Stream Control of 


2,055,000 cubic yards 

425,000 cubic yards 

ikments 7,265,000 cubic yards 

1,100,000 barrels 
882,000 cubic yards 
105,000 cubic yards 
914 tons 
200 acres 
21,500 lineal feet 
11,000 cubic yards 
950,000 feet, B. M. 
the Esopus and Beaver Kill. 


The amount of work to be done in the 84 months is shown as 
follows: 

End of 9 months 
“ “ 16 

“ “ 28 


“ “ ^2 

“ “ 64 

“ “ 76 

“ “ 84 

On being notified of the award of the contract, Mac Arthur Bros. 
Co. and Winston & Co. at once began shipping plant from other works 
to Brown Station and placing orders for lumber etc. for use in the' 
building of the camps etc. A party of engineers were also sent to the 
site to make the necessary surveys for the railroad, changing high¬ 
ways and the general layout of the plant and camp. Employees began 
arriving from all parts and sought shelter among the few scattered 
inhabitants of Brown Station; many had to travel to and from Kings- 


2 per cent 
9 “ “ 


23 

-P 

61 

80 

96 

100 


Does not include crushed stone in any of the masonry. 


ton, as there were no available places for them to live. Mules and 
wagons were driven across country from the Cross River Dam, which 
was about completed and many of the employees from there with 
their families came as fast as places for them to live could be provided. 
In order that this class of men could get their kinds of food-stuffs, not 
carried by the ordinary country store, a temporary commissary was 
opened in a building near the station, in which the contractors had 
opened their office pending the erection of the buildings in the main 
camp. Actual work was started on the railroad on September 26, 1907; 
clearing the right of way and the work of grading for the track was 
pushed, in order that a siding might be obtained and room made for 
the storage of all plant, which was arriving daily in train-loads and 
filling nearly all of the sidings on the U. & D. R. R. A derrick was 
also erected near the station, in order that these cars could be un¬ 
loaded. The clearing of the sites of the dikes was started on October 
2, and a few days later work was commenced on the erection of houses 
in the camp for the employees. In less than a week several of these 
were ready for the tenants. At this time the attention was directed 
chiefly to getting accommodations etc. for the employees and all avail¬ 
able men and carpenters were put to work on the buildings. In the 
meantime the plant kept arriving and men kept coming in and work 
was also started on the office on October 12. About this time the 
plans for the work were gone over and work was started on the ma¬ 
chine shops a few days later. The site of the head-towers of the 
cableways at the dam was drained, preparatory to making a start on 
the embankment which had to be built for them and the embankment 
work was started the latter part of the month. By the first of Novem¬ 
ber the work on the foundation of the power plant was started and, al¬ 
though the work was retarded on account of extremely cold weather, 
very good progress was made and the installation of the plant and 
air lines was completed and the plant put into actual operation on 
April 12, 1908. The commissary and bakery were both started in the 
very early part of November, as the question of providing the neces¬ 
saries of life for the then increasing number of men was very difficult 
in the small temporary store near the station. The excavating and 
grading of the block-yard and the stripping of the middle dike both 
date back to this time. 

The attention of the contractors was then directed to the Olive 
Bridge Dam and work was started on the re-enforcing of the coffer 
dams on November 22, and on the same day the employees from Ka- 
tonah heard an old familiar sound when locomotive No. 23 whistled 




Excavating the Foundation of the Olive Bridge Dam. (8-ft. steel pipes carrying the stream to the right.) 


CU) 
















for Brown Station, having made the trip under her own steam. By the 
first of the year the boarding house kitchen, dining-room and dormi¬ 
tory were under construction and ice houses were built and being filled 
to provide for the hot summer to follow. 

The derricks at the dam were assembled and on February 25, 1908 
the first one was erected. Shortly after this, on March 7, work was 
started on the construction of the main cable-ways at the dam and 
four days later the main crushing and mixing plant, for which plans 
had been drawn during the winter, was started. The first cable-wav 
tower was raised on April 18, the other tower a few weeks later, and 
the cable-way was in actual operation in the early part of June. 

As the installation of the plant progressed and men kept arriving, 
work was started at various places and the excavation of the Olive 
Bridge Dam was started on March 23. The excavation of the drain 
trenches at the north and south wing and the middle dike, as well as 
the building of the Beaver Kill road were all started about this time 
and when the whistle blew at 5 p. m. one could see men coming from 
all directions, having finished their days’ work. 

The quarry site was decided upon and a railroad line was surveyed 
to it and the work of grading for the track commenced in the early 
part of April. The site of the quarry was cleared of all trees, where¬ 
upon the work of stripping or removing the earth was started and by 
the time the railroad was completed, enough stone had been quarried 
to keep the masonry going on at the dam. The earth covering the 
ledge in the gorge at the site of the dam was being removed and Sul¬ 
livan channeling, machines were put in here in addition to the many 
Ingersoll-Rand drills; rapid progress was made in the foundation, 
the channeling machines cutting on the up and down stream faces of 
the dam and the drills between gradually working down into hard 
solid rock for a foundation for the massive structure of solid masonry. 

On A 1 ay 5, the Bishop Falls House, an old landmark where many 
people from the city spent their summer vacations, and which afforded 
a retreat for a great many of the employees of the contractors in the 
first stages of the work, was torn down and really was the first build¬ 
ing to be removed in order to make room for the plant of the con¬ 
tractors. The building stood where the tail-towers of the cableways 
at the dam now stand. 

With the coming of warmer and better weather, work was pushed 
in all parts, and during the month of May the diverting channels of the 
Hog Vly Kill and Beaver Kill were started. The Hog Vly, which 


formerly emptied into the Beaver Kill, now empties into the Esopus 
about two miles above the dam. The Beaver Kill now runs through 
a conduit built in the middle dike. This will eventually be closed. 
During the month work on the embankments on the middle dike was 
started and the excavation on the Beaver Kill gorge through 80 feet 
of glacial drift was also commenced a little later. During the early 
summer the camps at the South wing, east portion, middle dike and 
the east dike were started. At each place work was started on the re¬ 
moval of the top soil, the excavation of the core walls, the installation 
of the plants, buildings etc. and the work of putting in concrete and 
building embankments. 

The sand pit had been stripped of its surface soil and sand was 
being hauled from here to the various places where concrete was 
being used. Work at the dam progressed very rapidly and the rock 
was excavated to a depth far below the two 8 foot pipes which carried 
the stream over the heads of the men at work there. Masonry was 
started September 4 and filled into the excavation and before the end 
of the season it had risen to a point above the river bed. A conduit 
built in the masonry provided for the stream and the two pipes were 
removed and stored for future reservoir building. 

During the summer the main camp continually increased in size and 
additional plant was installed. The quarry was in operation and work 
was started on the west dike, aqueduct, dividing weir and the dis¬ 
charge channels and by the time the first snow fell at Brown Station 
everything had changed. The cold weather did not stop the work, 
however, and during all the cold wintry days the whistle on the power 
plant sounded its shrill blasts and the workers, wrapped up in heavy 
clothes and caps, with only their eyes visible, could be seen plodding 
through the snow to the places where the snow had been cleared away 
and with air drills and dynamite they worked their way into the rock 
foundations. The machine and repair shops were kept in full blast 
overhauling and repairing plant, wagons etc. 

As soon as the birds began singing in the valley and the snow was 
off the lofty peaks, the wanderers, who had taken leave in the fall 
and returned to the sunny south, began arriving, bringing with them 
their friends, and it reminded those who remained, that, as ocean cur¬ 
rents change their courses and positions, so does humanity. With 
additional plant installed and increased forces, the season of 1909 will 
always be remembered as one of hustle and push on the Ashokan. 

During the year there has been an average daily shipment of 
twelve car-loads of Alsen cement. To give an idea of the vast 

(13) 


amount of cement to be used in the work, it is interesting to note 
that if all the cement were to be shipped in railroad cars at one time 
and made up into one train, it would make a train 55*4 miles in length, 
or it would take 916 trips of the largest locomotive on the U. & D. 
R. R. to haul it from Kingston to Brown Station. 

If all of the earth and rock to be handled were built into a pyramid, 
it would be 34 mile square at the base and 34 mile high, or if it were 
to be loaded on railroad cars in like manner as hauled on standard 
railroads, it would make a train of cars reaching from New York to 
San Francisco, and back to St. Louis, Mo. 

A saw mill has been installed und wood lots have been bought and 
the timber hauled to the mill and cut up into various sizes for the 
different kinds of work. 

The work is divided into 8 hour shifts and two and sometimes 
three shifts are worked in the 24 hours. 

Up to the latter part of November 1909, the following amount of 
work had been done: 


Earth excavation 

630,184 

cubic yards 

Rock excavation 

85,362 

tt it 

Embankment built 

1.065,423 

it tt 

Masonry built in structures 
Concrete blocks built 

271,723 

tt it 

and stored in yard 
Cement delivered and 

12,600 


used in the work 

308,007 

barrels 

Acres cleared for work 

149 

acres 

Vitrified pipe drains 

12,000 

lineal feet 

Riprap and paving 

1,000 

cubic yards 

Crushed stone 

8,000 

tt tt 


During the month of October 1909 there was placed in the main 
dam 35,259 cubic yards of Cyclopean masonry and concrete blocks, 
which figure comprises the largest number of yards ever placed in any 
single structure of its kind in the world and this rate of progress 
shows that the plant installed for carrying on this part of the work is 
adequate for doing all the work in less than the contract time. The 
same condition prevails on practically all parts of the work. 

Yale Quarry, which furnishes the stone for the dams and the vari¬ 
ous concrete work, is located nearly three miles from the site of the 
dam, at about elevation 740, or nearly 200 feet higher than the rail¬ 

(14; 


road tracks at the dam. A standard gauge railroad connects it with 
all parts of the work where stone is used. The quarry has an almost 
vertical face of about 40 feet and is more than a quarter of a mile 
long. The railroad track runs along the side of the quarry and is 
double-tracked. Cars are placed on one track to be loaded and as they 
are loaded and taken out by the locomotives, another train is left on 
the other track, giving a continuous performance. There are in¬ 
stalled here 10 guyed derricks of the largest kind on the work, having 
a capacity of about 10 tons each and being connected to American 
Hoist & Derrick Co. engines. These are in one line and just far 
enough apart so that the boom of one will reach the boom of 
the other when out at full length of the boom. These derricks are 
used for handling the large 5-yard skips into which the stone is 
loaded, also for loading large stone into the skips and placing the 
skips aboard the cars, three skips to the car. The rock is drilled with 
Ingersoll-Rand Drills, then blasted and worked up by hand and with 
derricks. The quarry has a daily average output of about 1000 cubic 
yards during the working season. The first train-load of stone was 
hauled from the quarry to the dam on October 2, 1908. 

A crushing plant has also been installed here, the plant consisting 
of a No. 7B2 and a No. 5 McCully crusher, with a capacity of crush¬ 
ing 70 cubic yards per hour. The stone is taken to the crusher directly 
from the derricks and crushed. There is a side-track on which are 
placed large bottom dump cars; the crushed stone is loaded into these 
and hauled in the quarry trains to the various parts of the work, where 
needed. 

Sand is obtained from a pit less than a mile distant from the main 
dam and there is a branch of the railroad connecting it also. There is 
a large deposit of good clean sand, which, for concrete purposes, re¬ 
quires no screening, and which is loaded into dump cars at the pit with 
a Page Excavator. The daily output of the sand pit varies according 
to the conditions at the various concrete plants, where it is mixed into 
concrete. 

The Olive Bridge dam, being the portion of the dam across the 
valley of the Esopus, has a total length of nearly a mile. The main 
dam, or the heavy masonry portion, is about 1000 feet in length across 
the gorge of the stream and the north and south ends are earth dams 
with concrete core wall, similar to the dikes, and are known as the 
north and south wings. The excavation for the foundation of the 
dam was carried to elevation 3583/2 and as the top of the dam will be 
at elevation 610, the maximum height will be 25134 feet. It is about 



Main Dam (looking North), showing crusher and block yard in distance. 


(15) 




























igo feet wide or thick at the base and the top, over which will be 
built a highway, is 26 feet wide. The dam rests on solid rock with a 
cut-off trench near the upstream face, forming a heel or anchorage 
for the dam, and at the same time cutting off all seams or crevices 
which may have been in the rock and preventing any possible leakage. 
It is built of Cyclopean masonry, being concrete with large stone im¬ 
bedded. The up and down stream faces are built of concrete blocks, 
which are made at the works. To prevent any cracks or breaks in this 
huge volume of masonry, expansion joints have been built, extending 
across the full width of the dam as well as to the extreme height and 
are built every 90 feet for the entire length. Inspection galleries 
to detect any leaks or seepage are also provided and several of these 
are and will be built through the masonry for the entire length of the 
dam. A conduit is built through the dam in the old river bed and 
through this now flows the stream. As soon as the time arrives for the 
storing of the water, this conduit will be closed with solid masonry. 
The flow of the stream varies greatly, from 150 cubic feet per minute 
during the summer months to 38,000 at the greatest flood times. 

The site of the main dam was at first enclosed between two coffer 
' dams, about 360 feet apart, and the stream was carried in two eight 
foot steel pipes. These latter carried the stream until the excavation 
was completed and the masonry built to their level and were then 
taken out and stored for future use. The stream was at this time 
turned through the conduit already described. 

Heavy earth and rock embankments are built against the up and 
down stream faces of the dam to add weight and resistance. 

The work at the dam is commanded by 4 Lidgenvood travelling 
cable-ways, each having a clear span of 1534 feet or more than a 
quarter of a mile. The towers, two for each cable-way, are 90 feet 
high and each contains about 60.000 feet of the very best grade of 
timber. These towers travel on tracks, of which there are three sets, 
one of 3 rails and two of 2 rails, the tracks having a total 
length of about 600 feet. Each cable has a maximum carrying ca¬ 
pacity of 10 tons. Steam shovels and steam rollers and the various 
other heavy plant used in the hole are easily moved and handled with 
them; sometimes two or more cable-ways are used at the same time. 
The greater part of the excavation was handled with the cable-ways 
and steam shovels. All of the stone, concrete and blocks are handled 
with them, being taken from the railroad and concrete tracks near 
the head-towers and delivered to the derricks, where the material is 
put into the solid mass of masonry. There are 16 wooden stiff-leg 


derricks with 60 foot booms and having a carrying capacity of 10 
tons each, being equipped with American Hoist & Derrick Co. hoist¬ 
ing engines. Some of these derricks are located on towers and others 
partly on the hillsides and the masonry, and as the work progresses, 
are from time to time moved with the cable-ways. The main crush¬ 
ing plant at the dam consists of a battery of crushers, comprising a 
No. 9 McCully and two No. 6 Austins and crush 100 cubic yards of 
stone per hour. The stone is carried from the crushers in elevators 
to the bins above, after being screened in large rotary screens. A 
chute for sand is also provided and into this the sand is dumped from 
the cars as it is brought from the sand-pit and carried in an elevator 
to the sand bin in the upper part of the plant and adjoining the stone 
bins. From these bins the sand and crushed stone is fed by machinery 
into the hoppers of the mixers. At this place the cement, which is 
delivered here from the cement house on a belt conveyor, is added 
and the proportion of sand, stone and cement is properly measured 
to insure an even mixture of the proper consistency. The mixing 
machinerv consists of four 5-foot cube mixers, mixing 2/2 cubic yards 
at a time. After the usual revolutions of this cube and the concrete 
being - mixed, water being added as the cube revolves, the concrete 
is dumped from the mixers into large bottom-dumping - concrete buck¬ 
ets, resting on cars. These cars are then pulled by mules either to the 
dam or in the opposite direction to the block yard. There is a series 
of 8 narrow gauge tracks to the dam and two, branching off into four, 
to the block yard. The cement house is situated at the western side of 
the plant and a standard gauge spur track delivers the car loads of 
cement at the door. The mixing and crushing machinery is driven 
by a Chandler & Taylor engine, the steam being furnished from the 
boilers at the compressors. 

The concrete block yard, situated west of the main plant, is where 
the concrete blocks for the facing of the dam and the blocks forming 
the expansion joints are built. The blocks are cast in forms or 
molds, made of wood, with one side lined with sheet steel to give 
the exposed side of the block a smooth surface. There are about 350 
of these molds; they are bolted together and can be used over again 
and again. The blocks vary in size from 2^2 to 7 feet and the shape 
also varies as the dam increases in height. The yard is equipped with 
10 guyed derricks with 90 foot boom?. 

These derricks are also equipped with American Hoist & Derrick 
Co. engines and stand in a parallel line. There is a double-track, 
narrow gauge railroad in the centre of the yard and on this travels 

(17) 


the building platform. This platform is built on trucks and is high 
enough to pass over the forms or molds. It is 12X24 feet and is 
covered with sheet steel to make a smooth shovelling face. The con¬ 
crete is brought from the mixer to the platform, where it is dumped, 
and from here it is shovelled into the forms, which are placed on all 
sides; as these are filled, the platform is moved and the same per¬ 
formance repeated. After the concrete has been in these molds about 
48 hours, the bolts and the sides of the molds are removed and the 
blocks are left to dry for several days and are then piled up on sticks, 
after they have seasoned for at least 3 months they are loaded on cars 
and taken to the dam, where they are placed in the masonry. The 
yard has a daily average of building about 180 yards. 

Just across the main line of the railroad is the power plant, one 
of the best equipped power plants in operation on construction work, 
and one of the greatest points of interest. The plant consists of a 
battery of five 500 horse-power Babcock & Wilcox water tube boil¬ 
ers, which furnish the steam for driving the four large air compres¬ 
sors, built especially for the contractors by the Ingersoll-Rand Drill 
Co. of Tarrytown, N. Y. Two of these machines are of 500 horse¬ 
power each and did service at the Wachusett Dam and the Cross 
River Dam; the other two are new machines and have a horse-power 
of 450 each. These machines are compound condensing engines and 
are equipped with the necessary inter and after coolers for cooling 
the air. The only steam visible at the plant is to be seen when 
the huge whistle, which can be heard for miles up the valley, 
notifies the men of the start and finish of their days work. The 
larger machines have a capacity of 3500 cubic feet of air per min¬ 
ute, while the capacity of the smaller ones is 2500 cubic feet per 
minute. The air is carried by an iron pipe line to nearly all parts 
of the work, including the quarry. The coal is delivered to the 
plant by an overhead trestle and is dumped from the bottom-dumping 
coal cars into the large bins. Together with the coal consumed by 
the locomotives and steam shovels there is a monthly consumption of 
nearly 1400 tons. All coal is furnished by the Skeele Coal Co. In 
this same plant two dynamos are also installed for lighting the camp 
and the work; one is of 250 volts, 140 amperes, and the other a 
smaller one of 125 volts and 80 amperes. The former is directly con¬ 
nected to steam turbines and the latter is driven by an Erie City engine. 
A store-house for storing the oils is built near at hand. 

At the end of McClellan Ave. and at the down-stream side of the 
dam is the main machine, blacksmith and wheel-wright shop. The 

(18) 


main blacksmith shop has 6 forges, all driven with compressed air, 
one 400 lb. and one 200 lb. trip-hammer, 1 bolt machine and 1 
punch and shears for heavy sheet iron work, besides all the smaller 
tools necessary. At all parts of the work smaller shops are installed 
for sharpening tools, shoeing and making repairs to plant etc. The 
machine shop adjoining is equipped with the following machinery, 
driven by an Erie City engine of 20 horse-power: 1 planer, 1 radial 
drill, 1 Bickford boring mill, 4 lathes, 1 upright drill, 1 Acme bolt 
cutter, 2 pipe machines, 1 nut tapper, 1 automatic air drill, 1 screw 
press and a large travelling crane for carrying engine bodies and 
heavy machinery about the shop. The wheel-wright shop, where all 
wagon repairing and wood work as well as the building of new wag¬ 
ons is done, has a forge, a band and circular saw, planer and tenon 
machine. 

The tool-house, a separate building, is fully equipped with a com¬ 
plete line of fittings for all kinds of pipe, repairs and parts for all 
the machinery in use on the work, oils of all grades, waste and in 
fact everything needed in the operation of the work. Near here 
there is a large warehouse, 30 feet wide and 200 feet long, of very 
heavy construction, for the storage of plant during the winter months 
and where the same can be overhauled and repaired. In close prox¬ 
imity a building is also erected for storing the many steam rollers 
during the winter months. 

The railroad system installed here, one of the best equipped of its 
kind on any construction work, and one of the busiest departments, 
is described as follows: The main line, a double-track road, 
runs from Brown Station to the main plant at the dam and from 
here the various side tracks for the block yard, cement house, coaling 
siding and the various yard tracks leave the main line. The line leads 
off from here into the quarry branch, which crosses the Esopus Creek 
about of a mile from the dam on a steel viaduct 85 feet high and 
390 feet long, entering the quarry on a switch-back at an elevation 
more than 200 feet above the tracks at the dam. Another branch 
leaves the main line here also for the compressor coal pockets and 
one to the sand pit. Leading off from the qaurry line at the end 
of the double track is the west channel branch and another on the 
opposite side leads to the various borrow pits, where earth is exca¬ 
vated with steam shovels for the various embankments. Near the 
power plant is a branch leading to the west dike around Winchell 
Hill. There are two more branches leading off from this line to the 
north wing, one of which supplies sand, stone and cement to the 



Ma ; n Dam (looking South). 









in the distance 


( 19 ) 



























concrete mixing plant and the other delivers the earth for the em¬ 
bankment. The middle dike branch leaves the main line near Brown 
Station and crosses the U. & D. R. R. twice on overhead crossings. 
It is double-tracked for its length between these two crossings. A 
branch leads off this for the dividing weir and from this line also 
branches the discharge channel branch. A short spur gives access 
to the aqueduct. A branch has also been built to the bakery off the 
main line for unloading flour etc. 

The main yard at the dam has 8 tracks and there is a repair spur 
to the shop for the delivery there of heavy machinery and also a 
track to the car repair shop, where the necessary repairs are made. A 
large modern round-house and turntable is also built near the shop, 
with ash and repair pits, and has accommodations for the nine loco¬ 
motives. The rolling stock of the department consists of 9 large stan¬ 
dard gauge locomotives, built by the American Locomotive Works, 
these being of the saddle tank type, 96 flat cars equipped with air, 6 
gondolas, 75 Western side-dump cars and about 25 narrow gauge 
cars with two narrow gauge Porter locomotives. An American Hoist 
& Derrick Co. crane is always in operation along the railroad for the 
handling of plant stored along the track and was used successfully 
in the laying of the track and erecting- overhead bridges; in fact, 
there is hardly a day when there is not some work for it to perform. 
The total trackage, including all the branches, is about 20 miles, all 
of extra heavy rail laid on first class ties. All switches are provided 
with the necessary stands and lamps and there are flagmen stationed 
at all crossings to avoid accidents to the public as well as to em¬ 
ployees. 

Leaving the dam, the remainder of the work consists principally 
of the earth dams, which are called dikes, and these are made up of 
the south and north wing, west, middle and east dike, dividing weir 
and the waste weir, which is of masonry. A description of the typi¬ 
cal dike is as follows: The entire area of the dike is first stripped of 
all surface soil and all vegetable matter is removed. A vertical trench 
is then excavated along the centre line to either rock or hard-pan, if 
the latter is found suitable for a foundation. The depth of this 
trench will vary on different parts according to the geological for¬ 
mation of the earth. A concrete core wall is then built in this trench, 
the average width or thickness of which is about 10 feet at the bot¬ 
tom and 5 feet on the top. After the concrete is hardened, the wooden 
forms are removed and the space between the concrete and the origi¬ 
nal earth is filled with clay and tamped up to the original surface of 


the ground. At this point the embankment proper is started by 
spreading the clay in layers 3 inches thick on the upstream and t> 
inches on the downstream side; this is then rolled with heavy steam 
rollers, the Monarch roller being used almost exclusively. These 
embankments vary in width and in some places are nearly 800 feet 
wide; they have a gradual slope to the top, which is in all places 34 
feet wide and will eventually be traversed by a highway. On the 
outer side of the clay embankment and on the slopes there is a layer 
of stone to add weight and this is again covered with clay and the 
top soil, which was previously removed from the area, is placed on 
this clay and will later be grassed. These earth dams, together with 
the masonry part of the main dam, have a combined length of nearly 
four miles. 

The plant installed and the methods of building these dikes is de¬ 
scribed as follows: South wing. Here, for the stripping, no plant 
aside from wagons and mules was needed; the excavation for the 
core wall was done with a Page excavator and derricks. For the 
concrete work a quarry was opened about mile distant to supply 
the stone and a No. 5 Gates crusher was installed. The sand was 
hauled here with wagons, as the work was on the opposite side of the 
river and not accessible by trains. The stone, after being crushed, was 
carried by an elevator into a bin and from this, together with the ce¬ 
ment and sand added, was mixed by a No. 4 Ransome mixer. The 
concrete was hauled in small narrow gauge cars to the derricks, 
where is was deposited in the forms. These derricks were equipped 
with American Hoist & Derrick Co. engines. For building the em¬ 
bankment there is a 70-ton Bucyrus steam shovel working in a bor¬ 
row pit and loading the earth into dump cars, of which there are 
20. As the cars are loaded, they are hauled by two i8-ton Vulcan 
narrow-gauge locomotives to the place of disposal. The earth is 
then spread in layers and rolled with a Monarch steam roller. A Star 
well drilling machine is used for blasting ahead of the shovel. The 
quarry referred to above has not been worked to its capacity, owing 
to conditions at the mixer, and has turned out about 150 yards per 
day. The mixing plant has a maximum output of 226 yards of con¬ 
crete in 8 hours. The crusher and mixer are operated by steam, 
there being two boilers and an engine installed. There is about 2 
miles of narrow gauge track and about 40 mules have been engaged 
on this part of the work, where the Eagle dump wagon has been 
very much in evidence for the various hauling. There is also built 
here for construction purposes a machine shop, blachsmith shop, 
powder magazine and cement house. 


(2D 


North wing. Here the soil stripping was done in the same man¬ 
ner as at the south wing and the excavation for the core wall was 
done with travelling derricks; for the concrete work there is installed 
a mixing plant with a 5-foot cube mixer. After the mixing, the concrete 
is delivered in cars to the derricks, where it is placed in the forms. The 
material for the mixers is brought by trains from the main crusher and 
sand pit and cement in car-loads. The material is brought from the 
borrow pits by trains for the embankment and after being spread is 
rolled with a Monarch. The boulders encountered in the clay are 
placed on the rock embankment on the outer sides and this is the 
rule on all the dike work. 

West dike. Just over Winchell Hill from the north wing is the 
west dike. After the soil had been removed in the regular way, the 
core wall was excavated with a page excavator and travelling der¬ 
ricks. Considerable rock had to be removed here, it being the valley 
of the Hog Vly Kill. A cable-way similar to those at the dam, with 
a span of 1534 feet was installed here and handled part of the exca¬ 
vation and the concrete, and will also be used to some extent in build¬ 
ing the embankment. A mixing plant with a 5-foot cube mixer is 
installed here and the material supplied by trains as on the north 
wing. The mixed concrete is hauled in buckets on cars under the 
cable-way and thence to the core wall. Prior to the installation of 
this plant considerable concrete was mixed with a portable mixer at 
the east and north end of the dike. The material for the embank¬ 
ment is hauled here in Eagle wagons from the west channel exca¬ 
vation and from borriw pits and after being spread is rolled by a 
Monarch. 

Middle dike. The middle dike is the longest of the dikes and for 
construction purposes is divided into a west, middle and east portion. 
The work on the west portion was done in practically the same man¬ 
ner as the west dike, except that there is no mixing plant or cable- 
way and the mixing of the concrete was done with a portable mixer. 
The material for same was delivered along the middle dike branch 
of the railroad and the material for the embankment will be delivered 
likewise from the borrow pits. 

The middle section or Beaver Kill, being the valley of that stream, 
has been a very heavy piece of dike work. The stream of the Beaver 
Kill has been diverted and now passes through a concrete conduit in 
the dike, which will eventually be closed with masonry. After the 
soil was removed and in order to get a foundation for the core wall, 
it was necessary to excavate to a depth of over 80 feet through 

( 22 ) 


glacial drift. A cable-way of 1534 foot span and similar to the oth¬ 
ers previously described was installed and a great amount of the ex¬ 
cavation was handled in this manner. A mixing plant was also in¬ 
stalled with a 5-foot cube mixer, being supplied in the same manner 
as at the west dike and north wing plants. The cable-way handled 
the concrete from the mixer and delivered it to the core walls. A 
large storage bin is erected here, where stone and sand for the east 
portion and the east dike and waste weir is deposited, as this is the 
present terminus of the railroad. The sand and stone is hauled in 
Eagles from here to the work. The material for the embankment is 
obtained from borrow pits near at hand and hauled in Eagle wagons 
and some is delivered under the cable-ways by trains from the 
various borrow pits near the dam. The greater part of the exca¬ 
vation on this section was done with a Page excavator and travel¬ 
ling derricks. 

The plant installed for the embankment purposes on the north 
wing, west dike and the west and middle portions of the middle dike, 
besides the railroad line already described are: 

2 70 ton Bucyrus steam shovels 

i 70 ton Atlantic steam shovel 

1 30 ton Atlantic traction shovel 

1 30 ton Ohio traction shovel 

2 Model 20, Marion traction shovels 

8 Monarch steam rollers 

1 Kelley-Springfield roller 

2 Western graders 

2 Road machines 

2 Buffalo traction engines 

This same plant will also be used during the construction of the 
dividing weir dike later. 

For the various kinds of hauling and team work at the main dam 
and main camp and the north wing, west dike, west and middle por¬ 
tion of the middle dike and vicinity there are provided the necessary 
wagons, 80 2 and 3 mule Eagles, some Watson and Studebaker, scra¬ 
pers, both drag and wheeled, and wagons and carts of nearly every 
description. All of the mules for this part of the work are quar¬ 
tered at the main barns; there are 235 mules and about 20 horses for 
various purposes. These together with the horses and mules on the 
work at the south wing, east portion of middle dike and east dike, 
make a total of 64 horses and 365 mules. Oats, hay and other feed 
is delivered in car-load lots. 



Scene at Main Dam, showing cable-way towers, crusher and railroad yard. 


(23) 

















East portion middle dike. This section of the dike lays on fairly 
high ground. After the removal of the top soil two travelling derricks 
were used for the excavation of the core wall and these same derricks, 
equipped with American Hoist & Derrick Co. engines, were used for 
the placing of the concrete. Here a Chicago Municipal portable 
mixer was used and the concrete material was hauled from the Beaver 
Kill bins. For embankment material a 70 ton Atlantic shovel is 
used in connection with a narrow gauge railroad with about two 
miles of track, 40 3-yard cars and 2 Vulcan narrow gauge lo¬ 
comotives. The earth, after being spread, is rolled by a Monarch rol¬ 
ler. A cement house and machine shop are also erected here. About 
40 horses and Eagle wagons were also used for miscellaneous hauling. 

East dike. This is the eastern end of the dikes and a portion of it 
crosses a marsh, where considerable water was encountered in the ex¬ 
cavation of the core wall trench after the removal of the soil. This 
excavation was carried on with the use of two travelling derricks, and 
the same derricks were used for the placing of the concrete. A No. 
5 Gates crusher is installed here and the stone was taken from the 
excavation and from a small quarry near at hand. The sand was 
hauled, however, from the Beaver Kill bins. A Smith mixer has 
been used for mixing the concrete and a battery of boilers installed 
with an engine for furnishing the power. A 100 horse-power air 
compressor was also installed and furnished air for drills etc. For the 
embankment work a Vulcan and a Thew shovel are used, together with 
the narrow gauge railroad with two miles of track. The rolling stock- 
consists of 2 Porter locomotives and 50 narrow gauge side-dump cars. 


About 90 mules and several horses are used for various purposes. 
The waste weir, over which will flow the waste water from the reser¬ 
voir during the greater flood times, will be a masonry dam 1000 feet 
long and will have an average height of about 10 feet. The masonry 
in this has not been started, but the excavation is about completed. 

Dividing weir. At the intersection of the west and middle dike is 
the beginning of the aqueduct which will eventually carry the water 
to New York. At the head of the aqueduct is the gate chamber, in 
which will be installed the necessary valves, gates etc. A cable-way, 
a Lidgerwood of 1150-foot span, is installed here and has a head-tower 
100 feet high and a tail-tower of 90 feet. This, together with a few 
derricks and steam shovels, will make the excavation and a mixing 
plant with a 5-foot cube mixer is being installed for the concrete work. 
Leading off both east and west from the gate house are the inlet 
channels, which carry the water from either basin to the gate house. 
They have a combined length of 8800 feet and an average depth of 50 
feet and the west channel has a maximum depth of 80 feet. The di¬ 
viding weir and dike starts at the gate house and runs to Green Hill, 
dividing the reservoir into an east and a west basin. A portion of it 
is an earth dam and dike of about 1000 feet and the remaining 1100 
feet is a masonry dam. A shallow channel will carry the water, 
as it overflows the masonry portion during the flood times, to the east 
basin, from where it flows to the waste weir and wastes over this 
down through the Stone Church spillway back into the old bed of the 
Esopus a few miles below the main dam. 


(25) 


iftaht 


r* 


S HE MAIN CAMP on the Ashokan Dams contract is located 
on Winchell Hill, between the Ulster & Delaware R. R. and 
the Olive Bridge Dam. The camp lies on the gradually 
sloping hillside, which furnishes natural drainage, and never during 
the longest rainy seasons is there a pool of water anywhere in the 
camp where a dog could quench its thirst. 


The first sight of the camp or knowledge of same when alighting 
from the trains at Brown Station is the “Hack to the Camp”, which 
carries people to and from the station. 


The main line of the contractors’ railroad, a double-track standard 
railroad, runs through the camp. All street crossings are protected 
by the usual white sign-board, such as is used by all railroads, and 
in addition, during the time the trains are running, are protected by 
a flagman. Main Street, the principal thoroughfare, runs parallel 
with the railroad from Brown Station to the Olive Bridge Dam. 
South of the railroad, and running parallel are Burr, Freeman and 
Stearns Streets. Metz Avenue crosses these streets and terminates 
at Main Street, just across the railroad. Shaw Ave., starting at the 
eastern end of these three streets, runs north, crossing the railroad 
at the bakery, and thence north past the office, branching off into the 
two residential avenues, Bensel and Chadwick. At the beginning of 
Bensel and Chadwick Aves. School Street has its origin and runs 
west towards the Camp School. Half way between the police station 
and the school-house Gaynor Avenue leaves School Street and runs 
north, parallel with Bensel Ave. Jones Street runs off Main Street 
at the hospital and crosses Chadwick and Bensel, terminating at 
Gaynor Ave. McClellan Ave. leaves Main Street just east of the 
commissary and runs west past the office and boarding camp to the 
machine shops at the Olive Bridge Dam. 

These streets are all lighted with electric lamps at night and dur¬ 
ing the dry season are kept sprinkled and the water zvagon is very 
much in evidence. 


After leaving Brown Station and coming up Main Street, the first 
building of note on the left and just past the Brown Station Post 


(26) 



Office is the Ashokan National Bank. The bank is capitalized at 
$25,000.00 and the stock is held practically by employees and local 
men. The paymaster’s office of MacArthur Bros. Co. and Winston & 
Co. is in the bank and employees can draw their money at any time 
they see fit, the pay being made up and checks handed them weekly. 
A great many of the men have no safe way of taking care of their 
savings, except in their pockets, and this institution has satisfied a 
long-felt want. Interest is paid on deposits in the savings department 
and there is hardly a man at the camp who does not carry his brass 
check and a pass-book from the Ashokan Bank. This bank was 
opened for business about the first of August and the deposits will 
reach more than $100,000 by the end of the year 1909. After pas¬ 
sing the bank you will observe several of the special types of dwellings 
built for employees and as you proceed further and across the rail¬ 
road you come to the hospital, on the left and further up the street 
the commissary department, both of which will be described in more 
detail. 

Opposite the commissary and facing on McClellan Ave. is the 
office of MacArthur Bros. Co. and Winston & Co. The office is al¬ 
most centrally located and north of it are the dwellings for the Amer¬ 
ican families, to the south the Italian and foreign camp and to the 
east the negro camp. There are also houses for Italians and foreign¬ 
ers at the extreme north end of the camp and to the west. The main 
office building is a two story frame structure and furnishes offices for 
the executive staff, engineering staff, mechanical department and the 
time and book-keeping departments. A large fire-proof vault is built 
in the building, which contains filing arrangements for all the records 
etc. The dark-room for all photographic and blue-print work is on the 
top floor and fully equipped to carry on this part of the work. 

The reservoir for the water supply is situated on the top of Win¬ 
chell Hill, overlooking the entire camp, and the sewage disposal works 
are on the brow of the hill at the extreme southern part of the camp, 
overlooking the Esopus; both of these will be described in more de¬ 
tail. 

The arrangement of the houses is so that each tenant has a certain 



Yale Quarry, which furnishes the stone for the masonry 


(27) 





















plot of ground in connection with his house. Here are the gar¬ 
dens with all the vegetables of the season and as the men work only 
eight hours a day, they have ample time to attend to their gardens 
and furnish their tables with fresh eatables. The front yards of 
most of the houses have nice little patches of flowers and these are 
the pride of the camp. 

Another scene in the early evening is the Italian men at play in 
the "courts”, one of which is built at nearly every house, and where 
they play their native game with large wooden balls. The colored 
men usually follow the old-time custom of congregating at the store 
after working hours, and after making their purchases for the fol¬ 
lowing day, sit around on the porch and tell stories of the sunny 
south, whence nearly all of them hail. 

An athletic association has been organized in the camp and most 
of the younger men of the skilled labor class are members. A base 
ball ground has been graded near the camp and every evening a 
crowd goes there for practice and pastime. The crack team of the 
camp during the season of 1909 played in a series of games with 
Olive Bridge and Shokan for a beautiful silver cup, presented by Mr. 
B. A. Powell, and after a hard fight won by one game. The series 
with the B. W. S. Engineers’ Team was lost after a hard struggle and 
the cup donated by Mr. Breuchaud and Mr. Harrison went to the en¬ 
gineers. The games were played after working hours, giving all 
the people a chance to see them. At the close of the base ball season 
a foot-ball team was organized and these games will furnish the 
sport for the fall months. 

A large band-stand has been erected near the office and open air 
band concerts were conducted every Saturday night during the sum¬ 
mer and continued until the nights became too cold. The band was 
made up of employees and during the greater part of the season there 
were 14 members. These men are paid for their services by the con¬ 
tractors ; during the summer the people spending their vacations in 
the neighborhood always drove to camp on Saturday nights for the 
concerts. 

Amusement is furnished a great many of the men by the pool-room 
at the bank building, where they are also supplied with lunches, ci¬ 
gars and soft-drinks. Newspapers and periodicals are also handled 
here, and a full line of candies for the ladies and children. A barber 
shop and baths are also in the same building, with two barbers in 
attendance. 

There are three churches for the people in the camp, a Catholic, 


Union and a Colored church. In connection with the Catholic church 
there is a large hall with hard-wood floor, which is used for dances 
throughout the year. Concerts and entertainments are held oc¬ 
casionally and in this way the monotony of the camp life is broken. 

The population in the cacp is a very mixed one and among the 
Americans there are 27 states represented. 

The foreigners are representatives of many lands and one can enter 
the commissary during the rush hours, between 4 and 6 p. m., and hear 
any of the following languages spoken: Italian, both northern and 
southern; Polish, Russian, Slovenic, Spanish, French, German, Dan¬ 
ish, Hungarian, Roumanian, Slovak and many others. 

The population of the camps during the busy season of 1909 was as 
follows: 



Men 

Women 

School 

Infants 

South wing 

25° 

8 

10 

3 

Main camp 

1800 

250 

160 

281 

Middle dike 

350 

10 

8 

5 

East dike 

220 

14 

5 

3 

Total 

2620 

282 

183 

292 


About 150 of the employees reside in neighboring towns. 

The boarding house department for the skilled labor and offiicc 
men consists of the kitchen and dining room and seven dormitories. 
The kitchen and mess hall building is a T-shaped building with the 
central part two stories high, which part furnishes sleeping apart¬ 
ments for all help in the kitchen. The main dining room has a seat¬ 
ing capacity of 200 people. The tables are arranged on both sides 
of the room, leaving the centre aisle free for the waiters; during 
the noon hour a great many men who live at home or away from the 
camp take their lunch here and it is the busiest place on the work. 
The private dining room at the other end of the building has a seat¬ 
ing capacity of about 20 and is used for entertaining visitors and 
sight-seeing parties, who are daily at the camp. It is also used for 
entertaining visiting engineering societies and at times the large din¬ 
ing room is used and is taxed to its utmost capacity, as on the oc¬ 
casion when the A. S. C. E. paid their visit, when over 500 people 
were provided with the necessaries of life. 

The building is built of the usual framing timbers and covered with 
one-inch boards and ceiled inside with tongue and groove pine or 
hemlock. The outside and roof are covered with Amazon or Paroid 


( 29 ) 






roofing, which are both perfectly air and water tight and to a great 
extent fire-proof. The kitchen is fitted up with a large Bramhall- 
Deane range, portable oven and facilities for heating water, while 
a large refrigerator is built in the building. There is a day and 
night chef and meals are served at almost all hours because of the 
several 8 hour shifts worked by the men. 

The dormitories are of about the same construction as the mess 
hall and are 30X90 feet with covered porches on either end. There 
are seven of these buildings and each one is provided with a bath 
and toilets, with direct sewer connection. In one end of each build¬ 
ing is a wash room with hot and cold water and the other end is used 
as a reading and smoking room and here is where one hears the 
stories of the railroads and other large works since the year of one. 
The seven dormitories have an aggregate of 91 sleeping rooms and 
each is fitted with a white enamel bed; several of the larger rooms 
have 2 beds, where relatives or friends from home can room to¬ 
gether. Two of the dormitories are heated with steam, others by 
stoves. 

The commissary department consists of the store, bakery and ice 
and cold storage houses. The store is a large two-story building and 
is divided into two departments. In one is handled: Clothing, shoes, 
notions, dry-goods and everything connected with a general store. The 
laundry for the men is also sent out from this department. In the 
other is carried a complete line of cigars and tobacco, groceries, 
bread and cakes, meats, vegetables etc. The second floor is used for 
storage purposes and there is a cellar under half the building, where 
potatoes etc. are stored for the winter. The ice house has a capacity 
of supplying the entire works and surrounding community during 
the summer and the ice wagon makes two daily trips around the en¬ 
tire works, in addition to the three delivery wagons run by the com¬ 
missary department. The bakery has two large ovens and six men 
are employed here. It has a capacity or daily average during the 
busy season of 2300 loaves of bread, 300 pies, besides all the cakes, 
hot rolls etc., which are handled daily in the store. The cold storage 
house provides for the proper icing and care of meats, which during 
the summer is very essential. 

The hospital and nurses’ cottage are located on Main Street, be¬ 
tween Brown Station and the office, and is nearly centrally located. 
It is situated between the street and the railroad, so that it is acces¬ 
sible from either in case of accidents. An ambulance is kept in readi¬ 
ness at all times and there are emergency bags at different points. 

(30) 


containing bandages, antiseptics etc. for first aid in case of accidents. 
The hospital building contains one ward of 8 beds, one ward of 10 
beds, two of 2 beds each and a private room with 1 bed. The average 
number of patients in the past has been about five. 

Entering from the street, one steps into the large sun parlor, one 
end of which has been converted into a vaccination room; all em¬ 
ployees are vaccinated, according to orders of the State Board of 
Health. A door leads from this into the dispensary, where all office 
calls and minor accident cases are attended to. The doctor’s private 
office is situated to the side of the dispensary. At one end of the 
building is the surgery and preparation room, which is fully equipped 
for all kinds of surgical work. The bath room and lined closets are 
just off the wards. There is another large sun parlor on the north¬ 
east side of the building. The kitchen, laundry, dining room for the 
nurses and the heating plant are installed in the basement. A covered 
passage-way leads from the basement to the nurses’ cottage, a four 
room and bath bungalow. 

The hospital staff is made up of Dr. J. V. Hibbard with one assist¬ 
ant, Dr. Knapp, one graduate and two pupil nurses, orderly, maid, 
cook and laundress. 

An organized fire department is maintained in the camp, having 
been organized in January 1909, with a chief, four fire chiefs and 
twenty volunteer firemen. A reel and hose house has been built in 
the central part of the camp, in the tower of which has been placed 
a bell for alarms; in addition to this, all alarms are given by blasts 
from the compressor whistles. Fire alarm boxes are placed at vari¬ 
ous places in the camp and in addition the telephone service through¬ 
out the camp enables the person discovering the blaze to notify the 
compressor almost immediately. The camp is divided into four dist¬ 
ricts and the blasts from the whistle designate the location of the 
fire. The reel is equipped with 1000 feet of 2 j 4 inch hose, hooks, 
lanterns etc. Fire hydrants have been installed throughout the camp 
and afford a good water pressure from the reservoir on the hill. In 
addition to this, there are chemical extinguishers distributed through¬ 
out the camp, at all the principal buildings and at a great many of 
the dwellings. During the year the department was called out on 
July 5 to extinguish a fire in the pile of pulp wood in the railroad 
yard at Brown Station; on October 9 a small blaze at the main crush¬ 
ing plant caused a few of the firemen to leave part of their dinner 
and run, and on October 26 the shrill whistles of the compressor 
roused them from their slumbers at 4:50 a. m., when four blasts of the 



South Wing (looking North), showing crushing and mixing plant. 


(3l) 



















whistle signified that the lire was in the vicinity of Brown Station, 
where the cable-way tower on the middle dike was on fire. All of 
these fires were put out with a small loss. 

An organized police force is also maintained by the contractors 
and is composed of a chief and four men. A station house is pro¬ 
vided for emergency cases. The principal duty of this department 
is to guard against the bringing of liquors into the camp, which is 
strictly forbidden, and to prevent rowdyism, which is not tolerated; 
the second, and often the first offence results in the immediate dis¬ 
charge of a person caught in any rowdyism or brawl. After January 

1, 1910, E. M. Gathright, the newly elected Justice, will hold court 
of special sessions in the police station building. 

To safeguard the health of the vast number of people in the camp 
it was necessary to at once take steps toward installing a system of 
sewage, and also to prevent contamination of the waters of the Eso- 
pus was made compulsory by the State Board of Health. On April 

2, 1909, work was started on clearing the site for the disposal works 
of the sewage system and the work of excavating the trenches for the 
sewers was rushed through and by the first part of July the sewage 
was turned in on the beds. The septic tank, or the outlet of the 
sewers, is built of concrete and is 30X40 feet and 5 feet deep. All of 
the sewage empties into this tank and the overflow empties into the 
filter bed, being carried over the bed in troughs and draining from the 
troughs onto the bed, which is 60X90 feet and built up of crushed 
stone and screenings. After the sewage passes through the beds it 
is carried by a pipe to the brow of the hill overlooking the Esopus 
Creek and drains down the hillside into the river bed, thoroughly 
purified of all organic matter. The vast number of lines of sewers 
extend to all parts of the camp and have a total length of 22,000 feet, 
or 4.16 miles. There are 50 manholes built over the sewers, afford¬ 
ing access to the sewers at this number of points. The latrines, or 
sanitary conveniences, for the greater number of the houses are 
built over the sewers — there being a masonry vault — and all sewage 
passes directly into the sewer, which is flushed every morning. Nearly 
all of the houses have a connection with the sewer for the sink drains 
and naturally all baths have direct connection. In addition to these 
sanitary precautions, all garbage, both liquid and solid, is placed into 
tight metal receptacles and hauled away and buried every day, there 
being two scavenger wagons for this purpose alone. All houses are 
fumigated to prevent the arising of any epidemic and the entire camp 
is under the strictest inspection by the sanitary inspector of the Board 


of Water Supply, the inspector of the State Board of Health and the 
sanitary department of the contractors. Any employee not complying 
with the sanitary regulations is considered as having furnished suf¬ 
ficient cause for discharge. 

In addition to the sanitary arrangements, the vital issue, the same 
as has confronted the City of New York, was: Where will we get a 
good supply of water for our employees? At first a series of springs 
were used as a base of the domestic supply, but this soon proved to 
be inadequate. A pipe-line was then laid a distance of nearly 15,000 
feet to a spring at the foot of High Point Mountain, which fur¬ 
nished water as clear as crystal and cold, and from a chemical an¬ 
alysis almost pure, or purer than 90 per cent, of the water which the 
people in the country now drink. On Winchell Hill in the camp there 
are two large storage reservoirs, one for the general water supply, 
being supplied by pumps from the Esopus and containing or having 
a capacity of 200,000 gallons, and the domestic reservoir, built of 
concrete and masonry with a water-proof roof over its entirety, and 
having a capacity of 40,000 gallons. The water flows by gravity from 
the spring into the reservoir and has a fall of over 100 feet. The 
general supply is used for various construction purposes, flushing 
sewers, fire lines etc. There are in the camp, in connection with the 
domestic supply, 31,364 feet of pipe lines, supplying water to all 
buildings. All of the pipe lines are below the freezing line and there 
is no trouble during the winter months with frozen water pipes. 

The main camp is made up of the following buildings for the hous¬ 
ing and care of the employees etc. 

1 special 3 room dwelling with bath 
7 special 4 room dwellings with bath 
7 special 5 room dwellings with bath 
7 special 6 room dwellings with bath 
1 special 7 room dwelling with bath 
21 standard 3 room dwellings, of which 4 have baths 
21 standard 4 room dwellings, of which 5 have baths 
1 standard 3 room dwelling for foreigners 
81 standard 4 room dwellings for foreigners 
11 standard 5 room dwellings for foreigners 
4 standard 6 room dwellings for foreigners 
20 standard 3 room dwellings for colored people 
4 standard 4 room dwellings for colored people 
4 barrack buildings, for men only, of 4 rooms each 
4 barrack buildings, for men only, of 9 rooms each 


(33) 



* 


i shoemaker's shop 
i barber shop 
i main office building 
i building for B. W. S. engineers 
i commissary 
i bakery 

i flour storage house 
i large ice house 
i refrigerator house 
i kitchen and mess hall 
7 dormitories 

1 restaurant 

2 school houses and i district school 
i hospital 

i nurses’ cottage 
i fire department hose house 
i police station 
i band stand 


(34) 


i bank building 

i barn for saddle and driving and ambulance horses 
7 farm houses, repaired etc., for employees. 

The standard houses are of one type and are built with the ordinary 
2X4 and 2X6 for framing, sheathed with 1 inch boards and ceiled 
inside with tongue and groove pine or hemlock. The outside and roof 
are covered with Amazon or Paroid roofing, which is air and water 
tight, and the floors are all double, with a layer of paper between the 
boards. They are all built on masonry foundations and in the win¬ 
ter are banked up on the sides around the bottom. In the 4 room type 
they are built like a ‘T’ with the kitchen in the back and are provided 
with both a front and rear porch. The 3 room type is built like an 
‘L’, with both front and rear porches. The special houses are of 
various types and construction, some being of the same construction 
as the standard except the shape and arrangement. The amount of 
rent charged in all cases includes water and fuel and all sanitary con¬ 
veniences. 





Scene at Block Yard, showing the method of building the blocks. 


(35) 


















































ied, there 
, situated 
caused by 

the work put that school in an overcrowded condition during the spring 
term of 1908. This condition was adjusted in the fall, when Mr. 
Winston had built and equipped a school house at the camp, and a 
second teacher was secured for the district. During the fall term the 
number of pupils continued to increase and a third teacher was em¬ 
ployed. In the spring of 1909, conditions were such that another school 
house was built and the fourth teacher engaged for the fall term. 

These four teachers now have under their charge 130 pupils of 
school age. of which 47 are Americans and the remainder colored and 
foreigners, the Italians predominating in the foreign element. 

In the same building, or the first one built by Mr. Winston, there is 
maintained by the Society for Italian Immigrants a kindergarten, which 
now has about 30 children on its roll of from 3H2 to 5^ years of age. 
Here the children of all nationalities are together in charge of an ex¬ 
perienced kindergarten teacher and there is a standing invitation to the 
people of the camp to pay their visits. During the morning there are 
almost daily visitors and to see the children of all the different natio¬ 
nalities at play and at ivork is quite interesting. Here you see the 
little pickaninny trying to carry on an animated conversation with an 
Italian or some other iittle foreigner during the time for play or recre¬ 
ation ; when they go to work, they are all attention and, as English 



HEN THE contract for the main dams was aware 
was one school of about 20 pupils in the district 
near Brown Station. The increased population c 


Is 


is spoken to them by the teacher, they by instinct are very attentive 
and pick up the language very quickly. 

The Society for Italian Immigrants is represented here by Aliss 
Sarah W. Moore, to whom a great deal of credit is due for the success 
of that part of the school. 

The same Society for Italian Immigrants also maintains a school 
for the adults of all foreign classes, the Italians, however, predomi¬ 
nating by a large per cent., in this same building. Here the green 
foreigner receives his first instruction in the English language and as 
he advances, just as the 6 year old boy, he gets his first reader, and 
some make remarkable progress and advance very rapidly. They are 
taught the national songs and sing them in the schools, waving the 
national flag. The school for adults is held at night between the hours 
of 7 and 9; there is no charge for tuition and any and all who desire 
may attend. There are about 75 men enrolled and they attend quite 
regularly, except when conditions on the work and their hours of duty 
make it impossible for them to attend. Nearly all the nationalities in 
the cam]) are or have been represented, with the Italians in the ma¬ 
jority. 

These schools take care of the children from the main colony and the 
children from the south wing, middle dike and east dike camps attend 
the district schools, which are still kept up in the vicinity of the various 
camps. 


(37) 





W-hvo; Cattm 


HE CAMP for the employees on the south wing is located in 
a grove of trees on the south bank of the Esopus and about 
500 feet distant from the stream. The camp is built along 
the county highway and has one camp street running through at right- 
angles from this county highway. 

The camp is made up of a commissary, or general store, and the 
branch offiice is in the same building. There is also a kitchen and 
dining room for the skilled laborers and a dormitory, with rooms 
fitted with white enamel beds, and will accommodate about 40 men. 
There is a five-room bungalow for the superintendent, and for the 
colored people and foreigners there are 2 six-room standard houses, 
I five-room and 1 two-room house. There are also 5 barrack build¬ 
ings for the single men who do not want to board at the houses with 
the families and who “batch" in these barracks, which have accom¬ 
modations for about 16 men each. 


o 


The buildings' are all built of the usual 2X4 and 2X6 framing 
and covered on the outside with one-inch boards, and these, as well 
as the roof, are covered with Amazon or Paroid roofing; they are all 
ceiled inside with tongue and grooved pine or spruce and the floors 
are double, with a layer of paper between. 

The camp is supplied with water from a spring and there is an 
abundance of pure water for drinking and all other purposes. The 
sanitary regulations are also strictly observed, as well as on all parts 
of the work, and the garbage is gathered up daily and hauled away 
and all sewage is carried in vitrified pipe away from the camp into an 
abandoned quarry, which makes an excellent disposal bed. 

There is also a barn provided for the care of the mules and horses 
and having accommodations for 50 head of stock. 

■ -— -o 



(htsf 'jSxtrtmn ittiitMc Siki' £<tmp 

HE CAMP here, located on high ground, consists of a port¬ 
able houses of five rooms, a branch office, 1 barn, 1 Italian 
boarding house and 6 dormitories for 30 men each and a com¬ 
missary. All the buildings, with the exception of the portable house, 
are of about the same construction as those at the main camp. The 
same sanitary restrictions are observed and water is furnished from 
a spring. 


fetsf Dik? (firuttjj 

H HIS CAMP is located to the east of the end of the work and 
an old farm was leased for the purpose and a great many 
buildings were erected. A branch offiice has been built here 
and there is a kitchen and dining room and dormitory for the skilled 
men with a capacity of about 40 men. There is also a commissary 
and 4 barracks or dormitories for laborers, for about 30 men each, 4 
cottages for foreigners and 4 for American families. The barn has 
been enlarged and the old farm house is occupied by the superinten¬ 
dent. Here the same sanitary restrictions are observed as in the other 
camps and an abundant supply of pure water is obtained from a spring. 



(38) 








Train, dumping earth for embankment off the core wall on the North Wing. 



Steam Shovel, loading “Eagle Wagons in borrow pit for embankments. 


39) 






















The various kinds of plant installed have been very carefully selected 
by the contractors, who, by their many years of experience, have used 
all kinds, and they have spared no expense in getting- the very best. 
All derricks are inspected regularly by men of experience and during 
the working season this is done every day. All of the requirements 
of the factory inspector of the State of New York have been complied 
with in relation to the proper protection of all machinery; railroad 
crossings are fully protected and sign boards, warning the public of 
danger, where there is any, are put in conspicuous places. The Her¬ 
cules Wire Rope, made by A. Leschen & Sons Co. at St. Louis is used 


almost exclusively and two of the main cables are furnished by them, 
the remaining ones by the Trenton Iron Works. 

Wagon traffic is forbidden in the vicinity of the dam on account of 
the vast amount of machinery and train movements, which would be 
dangerous to the public driving spirited horses. 

The entire work is under the sole management of Mr. J. O. Winston, 
the resident managing partner of the firm, and Mr. M. J. Look is the 
general superintendent in charge of all construction work. The me¬ 
chanical department is under the supervision of the master mechanic, 
Mr. C. H. Peters. 










Winchell Hill, showing West Dike and Brown Station and three Lidgerwood cable-ways, 
































A stretch of Core Wall on Middle Dike, and embankment being built against it. 


(47) 















Main Office of MacArlhur Bros. Co. and Winston & Co 


(49) 


































































(51) 


Commissary or Store in Main Camp, 






















































Hospital and Nurses’ Cottage, 


(53) 














































Scene up Chadwick Avenue, showing Special 4-room Cottage in foreground 


(55) 







































Scene up Gaynor Avenue, showing Special 5-room Cottage in foreground. 


(57) 
















Mid-Winter Scene on Bensel Avenue, 


(59) 











































Typical Italian Camp of the past, as compared with the modern camp at Ashokan. 


(61) 













A Standard 3-room Cottagi 




A Special Type Cottage. 


(63) 



















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One copy del. to Cat. Div. 


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